Gameseek calls in the liquidators

Gameseek have officially called in liquidators to dissolve the business and dispose of its assets marking the end of the retailer who were trying to turn themselves into a marketplace. The website has been offline for a week which caused concern from customers and has sadly proven justified.

Lisa Marie Moxen and Christopher Benjamin Barrett of Dow Schofield Watts have been proposed as the joint liquidators and it is proposed by the Gameseek board that their appointment be accepted by consent unless 10% of the creditors object. A final decision will be made on the 17th of May when the business will be wound up.

It’s sad for the many Gameseek employees who will now be out of work and over the weekend many customers have taken to social media have placed orders or in some cases pre-orders and not received the products they paid for. Gameseek merchants may also be out of pocket for any orders shipped for which funds have not yet been remitted.

Gameseek were looking to do something different in the marketplace world, unlike some retailers who tagged a marketplace on to their website and restricted merchants either by invitation only or by cherry picking the products they would allow them to list, Gameseek turned themselves into a merchant on their own platform to enable merchants to openly compete against their own offers.

Launching a marketplace is an expensive but Gameseek had the advantage that they already had a ready pool of customers. If you’re still looking for an alternative to the big two UK marketplace – eBay and Amazon – then Etsy, Flubit, OnBuy, NotOnTheHighStreet and Yumbles are worth exploring if they fit your product profile.

Gameseek are the second UK marketplace to close this year after Halfords pulled the plug on theirs and went back to being a retailer.

What should customers do?

If you had placed orders which you haven’t received or pre-orders then where you stand will depend upon the payment method you used. If you paid more than £100 by credit card you should contact your card issuer. If you paid with PayPal you may be covered under the PayPal Buyer Guarantee. If you paid by debit or credit card then contact your card issuer to enquire about a charge back.

What should merchants do?

If you are a Gameseek merchant and have shipped out orders but not yet been paid then you should contact the liquidators. It’s unclear whether Gameseek had a client account to segregate any funds due to you. If not then you will be a creditor along with the company’s suppliers and any other businesses owed money.

If in the unlikely event you have outstanding orders which have not yet been shipped then it is unlikely you’ll get paid for them if you choose to fulfil them.

SAM

10 months ago

Thought that is what happened. 2nd video games company to go under in as many months after Grainger Games. Expect Magpie to be like locust all over Gameseek stock just like Graingers 🙁
It is brutal right now, last year really took a toll, 10 years we have been in this and did not think we would last. We don’t do any pre-orders on eBay now, no money in it.

Shop To have been selling at silly prices on eBay even cheaper than on their own site (clearly getting a special deal).
One of the other companies we do a lot of B2B with used to never be off the phone,not heard from in ages. Game is also struggling with “Margin”, turnover is up but margins down. Plus their has been a lot of POOR games released. Star Wars Battlefront II so disappointing. The whole games industry was well down last month.

Think we have one supplier who is offering competitive current market prices right now. Get bombarded with stock offers they just do not make any money on marketplaces. I know some suppliers are having a struggle.

Plus one guy we know on eBay is repacking pre-owned as NEW, his FB is finding them out, but it all adds up.
Guys on eBay selling at crazy prices, we pulled all our Amazon stock at the beginning of the year as it is not making any money, and got lean and mean with what we offer on likes of eBay.
Should not be taking pre-orders however and not sending gives the whole industry a bad name however. Gameseek had the right idea with their marketplace but guess time just ran out.
Pity Gameseek was one of the last independents. RIP Gameseek.

Patrick

10 months ago

Good.

Maybe some more firms will start to realise that the business model of selling at as little as 5% above fully netted down cost price is not a long term strategy.

Gameseek seemed to encroach into so many non gaming sectors, and with each one slashed the margin to single figure percentages.